Flying toy

ABSTRACT

A FLYING BIRD TOY HAS AN ELONGATED BODY ON WHICH A PAIR OF TWO-ARM WING LEVERS ARE PIVOTED FOR RECIPROCATING UP-AND-DOWN MOVEMENT, EACH WING LEVER HAVING A FLEXIBLE WING SECURED TO ITS LONGER ARM AND TO THE BODY, THE BODY CONTAINING A CRANK ROTATABLY MOUNTED THEREIN AND COUPLED TO THE SHORTER ARM OF EACH TWO-ARM LEVER, THE CRANK BEING ROTATED BY AN ELASTIC MOTOR WITHIN THE BODY.

Dec. 14, 1971 P. ALBERTINI AL FLYING TOY Filed Dec. 1, 1969 v lNl/E/V To Rs PRosPER HusmT/m fie/mp DE IQUYMBCKE United States Patent 3,626,555 FLYING TOY Prosper Albertini and Gerard de Ruymbecke, both of 30 Boulevard Chancel, Marseille, France Filed Dec. 1, 1969, Ser. No. 881,194 Int. Cl. A63h 27/00 US. Cl. 46-74 R 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE crank being rotated by an elastic motor Within the body.

The invention consists of the construction of a toy which flies mechanically, by flapping its wings and imitating the flight of a real bird.

Its aim is, by transforming a rotary movement into an alternating movement operating flexible wings with free trailing edges, to hold up, propel and, by orientating the tail, govern the height and direction of the flight.

It features the means used, taken either as a whole or separately, and in particular a hollow body Without any internal structure, with a cladding whose tubular shape enables it to perform an important mechanical function, i.e. to provide resistance to tensile pull and the torsion of the twisted elastic which stores power. It is provided at the rear with a notched cover which positions a crank handle which only turns in the winding direction and which is locked by means of a rack, in the opposite direction.

This crank-handle twists an elastic which operates a contrary crank-handle, held by a controlled locking device on which one or two small return crank-arms are articulated; these operate the wing mountings causing the flexible wings to flap and propel the toy; these wings are fixed, on the one hand to the top part of the body and, on the other hand, to the wing girders perpendicular to the body, the trailing edge remaining free.

The height and direction of flight are controlled by variable orientation of the tail.

In the attached drawings, given as a non-limiting example of one of the forms of construction of the invention:

FIG. 1 shows the wing structure,

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section of the propulsion device,

FIG. 3 shows a transversal section of the mechanism,

FIG. 4 is a construction variation of the mechanism, to obtain symmetrical wing-beats,

FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of the wing angles defining stability.

The wings of the new industrial product FIG. 1 are made up of a light flexible surface 5 fixed to the top of the body at 35, 36 and to the wing mountaings 26-27 articulated on the axles 28, 29, the rear edges 13 remaining free. An opening 1 is provided to facilitate the fastening of the elastic.

The tail is fixed to the mounting 4 locking on to the metal armature 37 which locks on to the stop 41.

As shown in FIG. 2, the body 6 has no internal structure but has a cladding; it is slightly truncate in section and the rear part is closed with a cover 40 horizontal at 7 to the shaft 8 of the crank-handle 9 whose crank 10 notches on a rack or ratchet at 11; the grip 3 clips on the crank-handle 9.

The inside end of the shaft of the crank-handle 8 ends in a book 12 retaining an elastic 14 retained at the opposite end by the hook 15 one end of which forms a loop 42 and the other end of which forms the crankhandle 16 the axle of which is mounted on the horizontal part 17 of the forward mounting 18 comprising the movement-transforming mechanism and on which the forward structure 19 is fixed. A stop-lock 20 is fitted to lock or release the crank 21 of the crank-handle on which the rods 22, 23 are mounted; these operate the arms 24, 25 of the wing mountings 26-27 oscillating around the axles 28, 29.

When symmetrical wing-beats are required, the rod 30 FIG. 4 is fitted with an axle 39 which slides in the vertical slot 38 in the forward couple and in the grooves 31, 32 in the arms 42, 43 of the wing mountings.

The advantages and working of this device can thus be seen.

The user, by turning the crank-handle 9, twists the elastic 14 which stores the power which is immobilised by the notching in the rack 11 and the lock 20. When the lock 20 is drawn back by means of the stop 2, the crank-handle 16 turns, moving the rods 22, 23 and the wing mountings 2627 flap around the axles 28, 29 parallel to the back of the body.

The toy is held up in flight by keeping the nose slightly raised in its trajectory, by a difference in the angle of incidence between the part bearing the Wings and the tail plane, which gives the thrust a rising direction. Equilibrium is established between this ascending thrust and the force of gravity in horizontal flight, though on the other hand the thrust preponderates in rising flight and the force of gravity preponderates in descending flight.

Lateral stability is obtained by a positive average dihedral angle, the average dihedral angle FIG. 5 being the angle formed by the bisectors of each wing, which angles are determined by the highest position (top dead-centre) and the lowest positions (bottom dead-centre).

The wings being fixed to the top part of the body at 35-36 and to the mountings 26, 27 and the trailing edges being free, these flexible surfaces incurve at each beat and project a mass of air towards the rear, which produces a forward thrust by reaction, i.e. propulsion.

The action and reaction of the air simultaneously hold up and propel the toy forward, which imparts complete realism to the flight.

Nevertheless, the shapes, dimensions and positioning of the various units may vary within the limits of the equivalents, as may the materials used to make them, without thereby altering the general concept of the invention just described.

We claim:

1. A flying toy comprising an elongated hollow body, a pair of two-arm wing levers pivoted to said body adjacent a forward end thereof for reciprocating movement about respective longitudinal axes, respective flexible wings secured to a longer arm of said wing levers' and to the body, a crank rotatably mounted Within the body and coupled to a shorter arm of each wing lever, a stop member carried by the body and having a first position in which it abuts against the crank to lock the crank and 3 a second position in Which it is moved out of the path of the crank, and an elastic-powered motor carried by the body and coupled to the crank.

References Cited 4 Botright 4674 Morgan 4674 Sears 4674 X Spencer 4674 LOUIS G. MANCENE, Primary Examiner D. L. WE-INHOLD, JR., Assistant Examiner 

